Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, KG, FRS (27 July 1625 – 28 May 1672) was an English landowner and Infantry officer who later became a naval officer and a politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1645 and 1660. He served Oliver Cromwell loyally in the 1650s, but went on to play a considerable part in the Restoration of Charles II, and was rewarded with several Court offices. He served as the English Ambassador to Portugal 1661-1662, and Ambassador to Spain 1666-1668. He became an Admiral, serving in the two Anglo-Dutch Wars in the reign of Charles II, and was killed at the Battle of Solebay. Our best picture of him is contained in the diary of Samuel Pepys, who was his cousin and protégé.

Contents

Montagu was the only surviving son of Sir Sidney Montagu (died 1644) by his first wife Paulina Pepys (died 1638) of Cottenham (who was the great-aunt of Samuel Pepys) and was brought up at Hinchingbrooke House. After his mother's death his father remarried Anne Isham (died 1676), daughter of Gregory Isham and widow of John Pay of Westminster. The marriage was happy, and relations between Anne and her stepson were cordial.

He was a member of the influential group, known to their opponents as "the Kinglings" who strongly, but without success, urged Cromwell to proclaim himself King. Montagu was prepared to support a Cromwell dynasty, and in the confusion which followed Oliver's death remained loyal to his son Richard Cromwell during his brief and disastrous rule as Lord Protector.[2]

He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to Portugal in 1661, and strongly favoured the Portuguese marriage, through which England obtained Mumbai and Tangier. Montagu, like others, saw a great future for Tangier as an international trade centre, and he commanded the fleet which took possession of the city in January 1662, purchasing a house there. Returning to England, in his capacity as Ambassador, he escorted the new Queen, Catherine of Braganza, from Lisbon.[3]

In the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665 to 1667 he fought at the Battle of Lowestoft, an English victory, but defeat at the Battle of Vågen led to him being removed from active service. His reputation suffered another serious blow when he failed to prevent his sailors from plundering a number of prize ships which he had brought in. By long standing custom the sailors could take any goods they found between the decks, but they were strictly forbidden to "break the bulk" i.e. ransack the ship's hold; yet this is just what Montagu, an easy-going man with a notoriously poor understanding of money matters, permitted. When this became widely known, the rumour spread that Montagu had unlawfully helped himself to a fortune, (in fact he seems to have taken less than he was entitled to) and the public, who were still enduring the horrors of the Great Plague of London, reacted with such unexpected fury that a minor mishap became a national affair: "the Prize Goods Scandal". Although Clarendon wrote that Montagu was too likeable to have any personal enemies, he did have political opponents, including his own superior at the Admiralty, James, Duke of York, and James' influential secretary Sir William Coventry, who were happy to exploit the scandal. He felt obliged to obtain a royal pardon: the King, mindful of his good services at the Restoration, willingly granted it.[4]

During his absence from battle Edward Montagu served as England's ambassador to Spain, replacing Sir Richard Fanshawe. This is further evidence that despite his unpopularity, he retained the King's confidence, although his political fortunes, like those of his friend and patron Clarendon, were in decline. Montagu himself had told Pepys the previous year not to put too much reliance on the friendship of any "great man". After the Great Fire of London Montagu downplayed the damage to the Spanish King, claiming that London's slums were the only thing in ashes. This slant on the events was also practiced by England's ambassadors throughout Europe.[5]

As Ambassador his most notable achievement was the Anglo-Spanish Commercial Treaty of 1667, which laid the foundations for a prosperous trading relationship between the two countries which lasted for over a century.[6] He also acted as mediator in the peace negotiations between Spain and Portugal which resulted in the Treaty of Lisbon. Like all Ambassadors of the era he found the cost of running an embassy ruinous (he had never had a good head for business) and on his return to England in the autumn of 1668 one of his first actions was to borrow money from his cousin Samuel Pepys.[7] On his way back from Spain, he again visited Tangier to report on the condition of the garrison there.

In 1670 he escorted the King's sister Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orleans, from France to England to negotiate the Secret Treaty of Dover between her brother and Louis XIV. Of the existence of the Treaty's secret clauses, notably that by which Charles II pledged to convert to the Roman Catholic faith, Montagu, like the general public, was quite unaware.[8] In the same year he was appointed President of the Privy Council Committee on Foreign Plantations; he had always had a keen interest in international trade, despite his notorious inability to keep his own finances in order.

He was subsequently reappointed to a naval command, and by 1672 at the start of the
Third Anglo-Dutch War he was Vice-Admiral of the Blue with the Royal James as his flagship. At the Battle of Solebay his ship was attacked by a group of fire ships and was destroyed with the loss of many lives, including Sandwich himself, whose charred body was found washed ashore and only recognizable from the remains of his clothing. Montagu, who had strongly opposed the War, and was increasingly prone to moods of melancholy, is said to have predicted his own death. Certainly he told his friend John Evelyn, just before he sailed, that "he would see him no more".[9]

On Wednesday 3 July 1672 he was buried in Westminster Abbey after a state funeral that started with a procession along the River Thames of five decorated barges from Deptford. The body was landed at Westminster at about 5 pm and carried to the Abbey in a grand procession.
[10]

On 7 November 1642, Montagu married Jemima Crew, daughter of John Crew, 1st Baron Crew and Jemima Waldegrave, whom Pepys in his Diary refers to with great affection as "My Lady". Edward and Jemima had ten children:[11]

Paulina's death in February 1669, aged only twenty, was a great source of grief to her father: Samuel Pepys, who disliked her ("a peevish lady"), called to pay his condolences but found Montagu "shut away for sorrow". Montagu himself wrote: "it pleased God to take unto himself my dear sweet daughter Paulina". [13] This is an interesting glimpse not only of Montagu as a family man, but of his religious beliefs, and seems to contradict Pepys well-known remark that Montagu was "wholly sceptical in religion". Montagu was a loving and careful father to all his children: although the marriages he arranged for young Edward (Ned) and Jemima were clearly not love affairs, both seem to have been fairly happy. Jemima's death in childbirth in 1671 was no doubt a further blow to her father.[14]

Montagu on his mother's side was the first cousin of John Pepys, the father of Samuel Pepys. Pepys started his career as a minor member of the Montagu household and owed his appointments first to the Wardrobe and then as Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board to Montagu's influence. Pepys' diary provides a detailed primary source for Montagu's career in the 1660s.

They had a serious quarrel in 1663, when Pepys reprimanded Montagu for living openly with his mistress, Elizabeth Becke, at her "mean house" in Chelsea.[15] Pepys was concerned at the damage to their family's reputation, Montagu's neglect of his official duties (risking the loss of any remaining influence he had at Court) and also at the insult to Montagu's wife, to whom Pepys was deeply attached. Following a brief estrangement, friendly relations were resumed, although the two men were probably never as close again as they had been (Pepys, for example, is not mentioned in Montagu's last will). For Pepys to raise the issue at all took considerable courage, considering how much he owed to his patron, and his Diary shows that he was strongly tempted to let the matter lie. Even when he did raise it he chose to write rather than confront Montagu face to face.

In 1668 Pepys was somewhat perturbed when his wife Elizabeth, during one of the violent quarrels which followed the discovery of his affair with her companion Deb Willet, told him that Montagu had asked her to be his mistress.[16] Since Pepys was in no doubt that she had refused, he decided to treat the matter as being closed, and friendly relations continued: Montagu dined at their house for the first time a few months later.[17] Pepys, on reflection, may have thought it possible that Elizabeth in her anger had invented the story to upset him, (as she undoubtedly invented the story that she was attending Roman Catholic services). Whatever their differences, Pepys in later life always remembered Montagu, whom he called "that noble and unparalleled Lord", and his wife (who died in 1674) with affection and gratitude.